Tablets, laptops, phones, mobile or portable radios, and other mobile computing devices are now in common use by users, such as government officers (including firemen, police officers, and paramedics, among others), and provide such users with instant access to increasingly valuable additional information and resources such as vehicle histories, arrest records, outstanding warrants, health information, and other information that may aid the user in making a more informed determination of an action to take or how to resolve a situation, among other possibilities. Body cameras are also starting to be deployed to capture events and environments around officers as they complete their assigned tasks and perform other functions. And government offices, including police stations, are being outfitted with fixed cameras and computing device to capture and store relevant audio and/or video.
One function that many government officers may regularly perform is an information gathering function (i.e., when questions are posed by voice to an interviewee and generally referred to hereinafter as an interrogation). This information gathering function may take the form of an informal conversation at a government building, at an interviewee's car or house, or at some other location. Additionally or alternatively, the information gathering function could take the form of a more formal conversation of one or more suspects or witnesses in one or more specialized interrogation rooms at a police station. Whether the information gathering function environment is informal or formal, or where the interrogation takes place, it is important that the information gathered from an interrogation is accurate and timely. Conventionally, government officers may perform the information gathering function a number of times with a number of interviewees over a span of several days or weeks, and only sometime thereafter begin to compare and cross-reference information provided through those information gathering efforts. However, this post-interview manual comparing and cross-referencing function is time consuming for the officer and the delay in performing the comparing and cross-referencing negatively impacts the officer's ability to ask follow-up questions and further impacts an interviewee's ability to accurately recall details from an event or incident when and if the officer subsequently returns with follows-up questions at some later point in time.
Thus, there exists a need for a technical method, device, and system for improved real-time conflict identification and resolution, and information corroboration, during an interrogation relative to an incident.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.